Antipiracy Program No Long-Term Solution, GAO Says
The Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP) program won’t work long-term without coordinated assistance, GAO Dir. International Affairs & Trade Loren Yager said Wed. in a Senate Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee hearing. STOP lacks the “permanence or the accountability mechanisms that would facilitate oversight by Congress,” GAO said in a report. Pilferage at U.S. borders needs “sustained attention,” Yager said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Yager’s was the only note of criticism of STOP raised by a panel of 3 Bush administration officials and a private sector representative. Chmn. Voinovich (R-Ohio) asked Yager and other panelists for ideas on how to build on the work of STOP, a Bush Administration program. “I'm trying to figure out how we institutionalize some of these reforms,” he said, acknowledging that “energy” could be lost when the Bush administration leaves and STOP ends.
“STOP has created a lot of energy,” Voinovich said. He voiced pleasure at a Justice Dept. report on efforts including adding 7 new computer hacking and intellectual property units beyond the 5 urged by a task force. “This is the last area of competitiveness we've got,” he said: “If people can steal our intellectual property then we're in real trouble. I'm going to stay on this issue, and I'm not going to let go of this until we get the job done.”
DoJ has implemented all recommendations in its 2004 IP task force report, DoJ IP Task Force Vice Chmn. Arif Alikhan said in prepared testimony. The agency earlier touted that effort but said it was waiting on congressional action and hobbled by international legal asymmetry (WID June 21 p7). The Criminal Div. Computer Crime & IP Section (CCIPS) has nearly doubled since 2000; in the past year, its attorneys have helped train and aid 2,000 officials in 94 nations, Alikhan said. Each U.S. Attorney district has at least one Computer Hacking & IP coordinator as well, with 7 added in June, he said. The CCIPS caseload is up more than eightfold since 2002, and indictments from IP inquiries rose 38% FY2003-2005, Alikhan said.
Alikhan listed DoJ’s investigations and prosecutions of Internet-based and hard piracy operations, including last week’s guilty plea by a member of the Elite Torrents P2P prerelease operation. DoJ and other agencies coordinated to get convictions in recent months against members of online piracy groups Apocalypse Crew and Chromance and pirated software Internet seller BuyUSA.com, he said. It brought charges against 5 alleged “first providers” of stolen movies online in April, indicted other alleged providers of prerelease music online in March and eliminated more than 20 online warez distribution centers in Operations FastLink and Site Down, both ongoing, he said. Three executives pleaded guilty to breaking into a competitor’s computer network to steal trade secrets in Dec., Alikhan added.
Congress should act on DoJ’s Intellectual Property Protection Act, still circulating as a draft in House Judiciary (WID April 25 p7), Alikhan said. The bill would expand forfeiture of property used in IP crime and criminalize taking a “substantial step” toward committing IP crime. DoJ is also working with the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) to fund a 3-year program to instruct teachers in IP law and developed an IP enforcement working group with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce composed of prosecutors, investigators and law enforcement, he said.
The U.S. is expanding its IP attache program in China and adding new officials in Brazil, Russia, India, Thailand and the Middle East, Chris Israel, international intellectual property enforcement coordinator at Commerce, said in prepared testimony. The agency offers free downloadable “IP toolkits” for businesses to secure their IP rights globally from its StopFakes.gov website.
Commerce developed an online “recordation tool” to let rightsholders register their trademarks and copyrights with the Dept. of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs & Border Protection to make identification of seized goods easier, Israel said. DHS’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement seized 210,000 counterfeit DVDs in China in a joint operation with the Chinese govt. and U.S. industry, he said.
Commerce is working to implement model guidelines approved at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in 2005, covering hard counterfeiting and online piracy, Israel said. The agency is working with the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development on a study to examine the impact of global piracy, and is cooperating with Canada and Mexico to fight N. American piracy through a trilateral task force, he said.
The PTO will have completed 16 Global IP Academy programs by the end of FY2006, Deputy Dir. Stephen Pinkos said in prepared testimony. The program, started in fall 2005, brings foreign govt. officials to the U.S. to discuss IP rights enforcement. The agency has also helped negotiate and draft IP provisions of international agreements for the U.S. Trade Representative and other agencies, Pinkos said. A public awareness campaign and series of conferences for small businesses on IP protection, started April 2005, has borne fruit, Pinkos said: Survey respondents from targeted markets were more confident in knowledge of IP rights than those in the national sample (59% vs. 39%), and had taken steps to protect their IP abroad (52% vs. 18%).